Much interest has been recently garnered in the field of aviation over the use and control systems of multi-rotor aircraft, specifically for miniature aircraft systems. Specifically, prior art multi-rotor aircraft provide lift and transition to level flight using a rotation of the engine-supporting nacelle (e.g., tilt-rotor) or attached wing and use elevator/rudder control for flight control. Tilting of the wing body (or nacelle) requires rotating assemblies and gearing; and elevator/rudder control requires additional hardware, all of which add to the weight and complexity of a multi-rotor aircraft. The added weight and complexity cannot but help increase the cost of such systems as well as introduce possible mechanical vulnerabilities. Further, all of these designs do not accommodate well the size of the payload, having no variability of the airframe for the payload. And currently there is no cogent paradigm for automating the safe delivery of payloads.
Therefore, there has been a long-standing need in the aircraft community for designs that reduce the complexity and weight of multi-rotor aircraft as well as complementing the designs with secure payload delivery systems. Accordingly, new systems and methods addressing these and other needs are elucidated below.